“The Lone Tenement” beside the East River

George Bellows painted many busy, emotional New York scenes in the early 20th century. “The Lone Tenement,” from 1909, depicts a raw city and its cast-off residents.

“George Bellows was a poet of the city, an artist who loved New York as much as Monet loved his garden or Bierstadt loved the Rocky Mountains,” states Artcyclopedia.com.

“There are so many things to look at in this picture that Bellows hardly knows where to direct our attention: sunlight randomly glinting on a window, transients huddled around a fire, a horse-drawn carriage, a ship belching steam on the East River, and in the center a lonely building withering in the shadow of the then-brand-new Queensboro Bridge.”

But where can you see that now, certainly not Manhattan? The rich have taken over the poor neighborhoods that once were and made looking and living as the poor once did, turning it chic and stylish, a fashion of the times. Manhattan Noir is all cleaned up and instead should be called Manhattan Blah!

One of my favorites…nobody did NY better than George Bellows…he died young, so these treasures are few and far between. I have loved this one for a long time. It sings to the NYC of my youth, 1950s though 1980s when the lower west side started the changes….